[xDrive50i]

SteveJ, you obviously haven't changed too many disc in one of these 6 disc DVD changers in a F01/F02 or else you would know that it is time consuming and rather annoying. To change all 6 disc in the changer will take you probably about 4 to 5 minutes! So you don't really save any time putting them into the changer, it is by far easier to change the disc in the center dash mounted single CD/DVD player and listen to the disc from there!

With the changer, first you need to eject a disc, which if you don't eject the disc that is currently loaded, the changer will have to 'park' the currently selected disc and then move to eject the one you have selected. Once you remove the ejected disc and insert the new disc, the changer will load the disc and start playing it to identify the disc, this takes some time and once it is recognized (as either a music CD or movie DVD), you can select the next disc to be ejected, at which point the entire process starts over, the disc you just inserted needs to be 'parked' in the location you selected, then the new disc you just selected to eject will have to be moved into position so the drive can eject it, etc...
As I mentioned above, to change all 6 discs takes a good 4 to 5 minutes!

I find it far easier to take my USB stick and plug it into my laptop, transfer the songs I want to listed to onto the stick and when I get back into the car, plug it back in, the system will scan the USB stick for any changes and off you go...
I have over 7000 songs on my USB stick and IIRC it took only about a minute to scan all 7000 songs. At least for me this is a lot easier as I have my entire music collection transferred onto my home media server (14k+ songs), so all I need to do is select what songs I want to take with me. When I transfer the selected songs, I do have to convert them since my library is in lossless m4a format and for the USB stick I convert them into mp3 format. This happens on the fly anyway so not a big deal.

It is also extremely hard to change the discs in the changer from the driver side. I usually change the DVDs in the changer every few month so the Kids have something new to watch and don't have to bother with putting a DVD into the rear center console mounted DVD player themselves (prevents them from scratching up the DVDs). When I do change them, it's usually before a long trip and I do this from the passenger seat.

I have had cartridge based 6 disc CD changers in other cars in the past and changing the discs was a tad bit easier but even then I would only change the discs every few weeks and for the most part when I did want to listen to new songs on a CD, I would simply use the dash mounted CD player. I find the USB memory stick to be far more convenient than having to handle CDs, they only fit a few songs, take up a lot more space and sometimes when it's really cold outside either won't play at all or keep skipping during playback...

I think most people (including myself) prefer the USB interface option over a CD player (or changer) for their music as a LOT of people use either a memory stick or iPod/iPhone or other smart-phone capable of storing/playing back mp3s. CD sales keep declining and online music downloads keep going up, so your chance of ever seeing a CD changer for music playback in a new BMW is next to nil. If memory serves me right, the MY2009 or at least at the introduction of the F01/F02 the CD/DVD changer was actually still part of the professional sound system and was taken out and even discontinued as an option the following model year.